Great-Grandparents

Here is what I think is the last post from our trip to the states with pictures of the girls with their great-grandparents.

Zoe and my Grandma VanderMeulen.

Sophia and Travis' Grandma Thomas on our first visit to Kalamazoo while we were in Michigan. She is wearing an alarm around her neck, and was letting Sophia press it over and over. Sophia is holding the box where the noise comes out and she was having so much fun with it.

Zoe, Travis, and Grandma Thomas.

Travis' family: Back row from left: Travis, Sophia, Travis' cousin Kassie, Aunt Karen, Uncle Terry, and Aunt Barb. Front row from left: Grandpa Thomas, Grandma Thomas, Zoe, Travis' mom Carol, me. This was the first time they have all been together in about 10 years.

Sophia's Fashion Statements

Sophia has chosen some very interesting things to wear lately! :)

Travelogue 3

Someone suggested I tell about our travels back to NZ! So, although it's not as entertaining as the trip to the states, here it goes.

We were leaving from Phoenix and heading to LA. It's a very short flight, about an hour. We got to the airport in plenty of time, but when we arrived, it took awhile to locate a trolley to put all of our luggage on (and trust me, we needed one: three large suitcases, two small ones, four carry ons, one car seat, plus two kids in a stroller). Then when we got to the Southwest ticket area, we saw a very long line. We had not seen one that long before, so we knew something had to be going on. Sure enough, the Southwest computer system had gone down, nation-wide. They were hand-writing all boarding passes and luggage tags. Woah! I have to say, they were doing it really quickly considering the circumstances. They were holding flights for people so that everyone could get through the line. We were going to be cutting it very close by the time we left Phoenix. I think we ended up with almost an hour, maybe less, to get our luggage, get to the Air New Zealand area, get checked in and get through security.

Travis came up with a plan: he would get all the luggage and I would get to Air New Zealand with the girls and let them know we were there. So, when we landed we got off the plane as soon as we could, but ended up standing there waiting and waiting for the stroller. I really needed that to get where I was going! Finally we got that and got moving.

I thought I was going to have to walk about half way around the LA airport to get to the international terminal, but was pleasantly surprised when I got out of the Southwest terminal and immediately saw an Air New Zealand plane. Our terminal was right next door! Yay! So, I went in and got us checked in while we waited for Travis. They said he had to check in a half hour before the flight was due to leave, so that left about 12 minutes. I kept waiting and waiting (it obviously wasn't that long, but it sure felt like it!). I asked a woman if I could borrow her cell phone and she asked if I was in some sort of trouble. Not really, but I just wanted to let Travis know what was happening, and then he told me they lost our car seat. He had to file a report and then came running down the foot path toward the terminal. He tried to stop/turn so suddenly that the luggage all came crashing off the trolley. He got checked in, and so did all our luggage! The nice thing about us being in such a rush was that they weren't too worried about the weight of our luggage, and just weighed them all together, so we didn't have to transfer anything out of our overweight bag into the underweight bag.

We took off running toward security. We got through pretty quickly, and made it to our gate, only to find they weren't even boarding our flight yet! We didn't have to rush as much as we did, but oh well. It was an adventure.

Our flight went really well for the most part. Zoe slept 10 out of the 12 hours. Amazing! Sophia slept on and off for about 8 hours. She was sick and so kept waking up because she was coughing. She also kept falling off her chair. Poor girl! Travis and I slept for maybe an hour each. That's what happens to me now that I can't take drugs because of traveling with children. Oh well.

When we arrived in Auckland, we could not get anyone at the airport to let us use or rent a car seat to get home! Not cool. It is true, that it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of Southwest, and that was a separate ticket from our Air New Zealand one. They told us to go to a store and buy one. We just drove home without Sophia in one. I know, it was bad, but we made it, and now have ours back.

So, that's the story of our trip back to Auckland! Good on you if you read all the way through. :)

Cousins, Aunt, and Uncle

Even more photos of our trip! Here are photos of the girls with their Aunt Josie, Uncle Tim (my brother), and cousins Alec, Owen, and Reece.

Sophia got to hang out with Owen quite a few times because he and baby Reece come over to Grandma and Grandpa's house twice a week.

Wow, check out this healthy snack--a Hi-C juice box and little donuts covered in powdered sugar. Good thing they were able to wear each other out!

Baby Reece! What a cutie! He's a sweet baby boy.

I love this picture of my brother with his oldest two, and Zoe. So cute bro!

Alec is not too fond of getting his photo taken. He was really trying hard not to smile in this photo, but you can see it coming. :)

Alec was wrestling with Tim, and Sophia joined right in there, tackling her uncle!

Alec is very good with the little ones, as he's had lots of practice with his two younger brothers. Aunt Josie and Zoe got along great.

Uncle Tim helping Sophia play "Zingo" with Alec and Owen.

Alec, Owen, and Zoe.

Not a very good photo, but here are Josie and I holding each others kids. :) I wish we'd get to do that more often.

And last, but not least (well, I guess in the grand scheme of life, he is least, sorry boy), Zoe and Floyd, my parents' pit bull. He's such a sweetie. Sophia figured out that everyone else bossed Floyd around, so she would too. She'd copy everything my mom and dad would say, "Go lay down Floyd!" "No Floyd!"

Grandparents

I have many more photos from our trip to the states, so here are some highlights of the girls with their Grandparents.

Grandma (my mom) and Zoe spent quite a lot of time in this position when we first arrived. Zoe was waking up in the night thinking it was just time to be up and awake, so Grandma hung out with her so I could get some sleep. Thanks Mom!

Grandma and the girls watching the squirrel outside (or as Sophia says, "fuirrel"), one of the favourite activities at Grandma and Grandpa's house, since we don't have squirrels here in NZ.

Grandma reading Sophia some stories before bed, something she did most nights we were there.

This is the snowman that Grandma made for Sophia. Sophia enjoyed being out in the snow this day. She cried when I asked her to come inside!

Zoe and Grandpa (my dad).

Both girls and Grandpa.

Sophia helping Grandpa make some waffle batter. That's what she wanted for dinner that night. :)

Grandpa helping Sophia improve her "Zingo" skills so she could keep up with cousin Owen next time. We checked this game out of the toy library and we've still been playing here.

All the grand kids. Seriously, this was the best photo I had. :)

Grammy C (Travis' mom) ended up being in Michigan for a few days while we were there, so she came up to GR for a visit.

Grammy C and Zoe at Travis' grandparents' house in Kalamazoo.

Catching Up

I am finally getting my photos organised and getting some things posted from our trip to the states. As I uploaded photos from both of our cameras, I realised that we barely took any photos in St. Louis, Alabama, or Phoenix. Sorry everyone! I think we were just tired. Here are some photos of Grand Rapids after the big snow that delayed our arrival.

Sophia wasn't too sure about the snow at first. For a while she didn't even want to walk in it. Thanks to Crystal who let us borrow all the snow gear!

Check out that snow drift on my parents' house! My mom got Sophia to walk in the snow by telling her it was like walking in sand. Good one Mom! :)

Getting ready to go on a 4 wheeler ride with Grandpa.

This is how my dad plows the driveway.

Going for a little ride on the paths with Daddy.

The weather got a little bit warmer and started melting the snow. It was much better for packing so my mom made a snowman for Sophia.

Even Zoe had a little time outside. :)

Car Seat Instrucions

Zoe needs a new car seat soon, and since ours was displaced for a couple of days, I went to purchase one at the Warehouse. There was only one car seat, so I had no choice but to purchase that one. Here are some of the instructions in the manual (note, these do not contain typos of mine):

• Make the car seat though one of car saet path on restraint and a hook, and then buckled it .
• Release the extra car belt of the hook and make surethe restraint lay flatly Pull the safety belt upward which shows in Diagram to tighten firmly the restraint with carseat. Please shave the restraint to test its frimness.

In the midst of struggling to get it into the car, I had a laugh! Yes, it was made in China, and yes, it's going back. Not because it was made in China (because everything these days seems to be), but because it's the cheapest thing ever and I'm not sure how well it would survive a crash. :)